Restoration plans for the Common

Roger Graham, Chairman of the Friends of Meadowridge Common, with speaker, Dr Charmaine Oxtoby.

At the  AGM of the Friends of Meadowridge Common on 24 February 2020, Dr Charmaine Oxtoby gave a talk on the proposed ecological burn on Meadowridge Common, an exciting plan to restore the critically endangered Cape Flats Sand Fynbos that is fast dying out on the Common. This is a co-operative venture involving The Friends of Meadowridge Common (represented by the Chairman Roger Graham and Botanical Officer Fiona Watson), the City of Cape Town Recreation & Parks Department (Sihle Jonas, Luyanda Mjuleni and Fay Howa),  the City of Cape Town Biodiversity Management Branch (Charmaine Oxtoby and her team), SANBI’s  Millennium Seed Bank  and the City Fire and Rescue Services.

Why does the Common need a fire? 

There is just 10% left of the critically endangered veld type, Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, that only occurs in Cape Town and nowhere else. Like all fynbos – which is fire-prone and fire-dependent – it needs to burn otherwise it will gradually die. The ideal time for a burn is every ten to twelve years. Meadowridge Common contains a small remnant (5,39 hectares) of Cape Flats Sand Fynbos where some 137 different plant species have been recorded. The Common is a Biodiversity Agreement Site, but it is degraded due to a long history of pines and lack of fire – apart from a small wildfire in December 2003. After years of motivating for a fire, the time has finally come and a restoration burn has been planned.

The objective of this planned ecological burn is to stimulate the fynbos seed bank. Because of the long history of pines growing on the common (over 60 years now), and a 16 year time lapse since the last fire, much of the native seed bank may have lost viability as it tends to do after 30 years. So some active restoration of fynbos plants that would have once occurred here will also need to happen.

Fire on the Common

The proposed burn area on the left of the path.

Why is Meadowridge Common important?

Cape Flats Sand Fynbos is a critically endangered veld type – only 11% remains in a natural state and only 1% is formally conserved. There are some patches where the natural Cape Flats Sand Fynbos still occurs in a degraded state, but with the potential to be restored. As our national conservation target is to have 30% of each veld type conserved, every bit counts. One such valuable patch is Meadowridge Common. In the heart of suburbia, it is a small natural remnant of what was Bergvliet Farm where William Purcell amassed his impressive collection of plants and animals that forms the basis of our knowledge of what used to occur in Cape Flats Sand Fynbos before urbanization destroyed most of it.

How can fynbos be restored on the Common?

Fynbos evolved to take advantage of fire and is now dependant on fairly frequent fires to trigger growth mechanisms and recycle nutrients in order for it to thrive. But fires don’t happen often in suburbia, and fynbos expert, Tony Rebelo, described Meadowridge Common as “the living dead” because without fire to stimulate new growth, it was slowly dying. The huge variety of species that have been growing there for decades, surprising visitors and scientists alike, will gradually die and disappear under introduced trees, invasive weeds and rank grass. A chance fire on the Common a few years ago caused by vagrants and quickly extinguished, revealed that there was still life in the soil. In the years that followed, bulbs appeared and bushes re-sprouted, seedlings took off and there was a burst of life in the burned area, spurring the Friends of Meadowridge Common to request that the City of Cape Town Biodiversity Management Branch undertake a controlled ecological burn of the Common.

Save the date ...

 

For the love of Wild Bees is the subject of our next talk on Monday 29 October 2018 at 7h30 pm  in the Meadowridge Library, Howard Drive, Meadowridge (click here for Google map directions). Our speaker is Jenny Cullinan of the Wild Bee Research Group (see their web page here, as well as their Facebook Page). Jenny will speak about the important role bees play as a keystone species in the fynbos region and why we need to protect all of our wild bees. She will show the amazing world of bees and, of course, their beautiful fit with flowers. Jenny has just returned from a conference in the The Netherlands and as this will be her first talk since returning, we will hear all about what is happening in this field oversees.

For more information, please contact Roger Graham, Chairman of the Friends, at 021 715 9206 or email us at Meadowridgefriend@gmail.com.

Entry is free, everyone is welcome, and safe parking is provided. Tea, coffee and cakes will be provided.

New poster for the Common

Recent clearing operations on Meadowridge Common were brought to a halt when the workers discovered a wild honeybee colony. Although this colony was known to some of the locals, it was an exciting find for many conservationists. One of the visitors drew our attention to the colony as she was concerned that it had now become exposed as half the bush it was in had been cut away. The Friends of Meadowridge Common were directed to Jenny Cullinan of the Wild Bee Research Group and with her help, and input from The City of Cape Town, we decided to make a poster to put up on the Common. If you would like to download a PDF of the poster, click here.
Visit the Wild Bee Research Group web page here, as well as their Facebook Page.